Rule 124 Procedure in d CA

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Review on the 2000 Revised Rules on CriminalProcedure 2002 Edition

<draft copy; pls. check for errors>

Rule 124 – Procedure intheCourt of Appeals

Rule 124PROCEDURE IN THECOURT OF APPEALSSECTION 1.

Title of the case.

– In all criminal cases appealed to the Court of Appeals,the party appealing the case shall be called the "appellant" and the adverse party the"appellee," but the title of the case shall remain as it was in the court of origin. (1a)SEC. 2.

Appointment of counsel de oficio for the accused.

– If it appears from the record of the case as transmitted that (a) the accused is confined in prison, (b) is without counsel departe on appeal, or (c) has signed the notice of appeal himself, ask the clerk of court of theCourt of Appeals shall designate a counsel de oficio.An appellant who is not confined in prison may, upon request, be assigned a counselde oficio within ten (10) days from receipt of the notice to file brief and he establishes hisright thereto. (2a)SEC. 3.

When brief for appellant to be filed.

– Within thirty (30) days from receipt by theappellant or his counsel of the notice from the clerk of court of the Court of Appeals thatthe evidence, oral and documentary, is already attached to the record, the appellant shallfile seven (7) copies of his brief with the clerk of court which shall be accompanied byproof of service of two (2) copies thereof upon the appellee.(3a)SEC. 4.

When brief for appellee to be filed; reply brief of the appellant.

– Within thirty (30)days from receipt of the brief of the appellant, the appellee shall file seven (7) copies of thebrief of the appellee with the clerk of court which shall be accompanied by proof of serviceof two (2) copies thereof upon the appellant.Within twenty (20) days from receipt of the brief of the appellee, the appellant may filea reply brief traversing matters raised in the former but not covered in the brief of theappellant. (4a)SEC. 5.

Extension of time for filing briefs.

– Extension of time for the filing of briefs will notbe allowed except for good and sufficient cause and only if the motion for extension isfiled before the expiration of the time sought to be extended. (5a) SEC. 6.

Form of briefs.

– Briefs shall either be printed, encoded or typewritten in doublespace on legal size good quality unglazed paper, 330 mm. in length by 216 mm. in width.(6a)SEC. 7.

Contents of brief.

– The briefs in criminal cases shall have the same contents asprovided in sections 13 and 14 of Rule 44. A certified true copy of the decision or finalorder appealed from shall be appended to the brief of the appellant. (7a)

The

appellant

is the tem applied to the party making the appeal.

Appellee

is the term applied to the party inwhose favor the decision is rendered.Procedure in the CA. Halos pareho man din. It is almost similar in civil cases. The accused will be required tofile his brief (appellant’s brief), to be followed by the appellee’s brief with the government, and if possibleappellant’s reply brief.Q: Now, who prepares the appellee’s brief?A: The Solicitor General. This is their mastery.Normally, the Solicitor General files the brief, maiksi lang masyado. I’ve seen a lot of briefs for the People of the Philippines. If I can see a brief which does not exceed 15 pages, you are very lucky. Everything is there.Everything is condensed. Yet I wonder it takes them several extensions to file. I don’t think nahirapan silang mag-file nun. Tamad lang siguro ba. Kaya galit man ang SC. There are so many SC resolutions berating the Solicitor

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Review on the 2000 Revised Rules on CriminalProcedure 2002 Edition

<draft copy; pls. check for errors>

Rule 124 – Procedure intheCourt of Appeals

General for asking for a lot of extensions for a very simple matter. They always claim pressure of work. That’s whythe SC wants also to control the number of extensions of time.I have seen a brief prepared by the Solicitor General in a criminal case. From 45 days, extension, extension,extension… umabot na siguro ng 150 days – mga 5 months! Finally, na-file. When I look at it, 8 pages lang. I waslooking at the brief and then for eevry assignment of error by the appellant, sinagot niya ng mga dalawang (2)paragraphs lang. And when I look at the appellant’s brief, ka-kapal masyado! There are so many thingsdiscussed –

why the court is wrong, why the court made an error.

Sinagot ng Solicitor General, tag 2 or 3paragraphs lang!So the appellant’s brief, mga 30 pages or more. Sinagot ng Solicitor General in 8 pages only. And then after several years I asked the defense counsel kung tapos na ba ang kaso mo. O ano man?

“Affirmed.”

Meaning, theconviction was affirmed. That is where you will see that in order to win a case on appeal, IT IS NOT THELENGTH OF THE BRIEF WHICH MATTERS. IT IS THE SUBSTANCE. Substance is more important than length.The CA is not impressed on haba. Mainis pa sila niyan because they have no time to read. This is a very goodlesson: THE LONGER IS YOUR PLEADING, THE LESS CHANCES YOU HAVE. That’s how I looked at it. Eventhe SC, that’s how they behave.And there was somebody two weeks ago, who was asked to prepare a COMMENT. The CA required thatlawyer to comment.

“COMMENT… Pwede na ba ito?”

Ano ba yang comment mo? Gaano kahaba?

“Mga 15 pages.”

Eh mahaba eh! Bawat comment niya may citations of authorities. Sige, paiiksiin natin ha? Tinanggal ko…kadami kong tinanggal. Umabot ng 3 pages na lang.

“Paano yung iba?”

Look, when the CA says, “The petition ishereby given due course. You are now required to file MEMORANDA…” that is now your time. Bombahan mo na!Huwag kang mag-memorandum-memorandum sa comment. Pag comment, sabihin mo lang na hindi ito puwede

.“Puwede ko pala tapusin ito in one day?”

Of course! Sabi ko, in the CA or SC, it is not the length of your pleadingswhich matters but the substance. Yan! Alright, let’s go to Section 8.

SEC. 8.

Dismissal of appeal for abandonment or failure to prosecute.

– The Court of Appeals may, upon motion of the appellee or motu proprio and with notice to the appellantin either case, dismiss the appeal if the appellant fails to file his brief within the timeprescribed by this Rule, except where the appellant is represented by a counsel de oficio.x x x x x

If the appellant will not file his appellant’s brief, the case is dismissed – same in civil cases –

except

wherethe appellant is represented by counsel

de oficio

because the counsel

de oficio

is really a court-appointed lawyer.So why will the accused suffer if the court-designated lawyer is negligent? But if it is a lawyer of your own choicewho failed to file the brief, then you suffer the consequence.Although we are talking of criminal cases, if you based it on the guidelines, it would seem that when the CAdismisses the appeal, it should give a warning to the accused. This is what the SC said in the case of

FAROLAN

vs.

COURT OF APPEALSFebruary 07, 1995HELD

: “Under Sec. 8 of Rule 124, the failure to file the appellant's brief on time may cause thedismissal of the appeal, upon either the motion of the appellee or on the own motion of the appellatecourt, provided that notice must be furnished to the appellant to show cause why his appeal shouldnot be dismissed.” At least give him a warning.“But the exception to this rule has been clearly stated —

i.e.

when the appellant is represented bya counsel de oficio.”The second paragraph of Section 8 is more important:

209

Review on the 2000 Revised Rules on CriminalProcedure 2002 Edition

<draft copy; pls. check for errors>

Rule 124 – Procedure intheCourt of Appeals

The Court of Appeals may also, upon motion of the appellee or motu proprio, dismissthe appeal if the appellant escapes from prison or confinement, jumps bail or flees to aforeign country during the pendency of the appeal. (8a)

There is an appeal pending in the CA, the appellant escaped from prison or jumped bail, or flees to a foreigncountry, under the 2nd paragraph of Section 8, his appeal will be dismissed. Abandoned na! By his act of runningaway, the judgment of conviction will become final.This provision prompted the SC to also apply doon sa promulgation. Under Rule 120, if during thepromulgation the accused disappears, the promulgation will proceed

in absentia

and then the law says theaccused forfeits all his remedies. Why? Kung nag-appeal siya, and then nag-layas siya, the appeal will bedismissed, lalo na kung di siya nag-appeal! You will also lose your right to appeal. The reason according to theSC, once the accused escaped from prison or confinement or jumped bail, he loses his standing in court andunless he surrenders or submits to the jurisdiction of the court, he is deemed to have waived any right to seekrelief from the court. (Gimenez vs. Nazareno, 160 SCRA 1)We will now answer the question of Mr. Benito:Q: When a person who is sentenced to death escaped, can the automatic review still proceed? Or assumingthere is already an automatic review and while he is in jail, naglayas, and the SC learns of his escape, what willhappen to the automatic review? Tuloy or dismissed?A: This is the question which bugged the SC in the 1996 case of PEOPLE vs. ESPARAS (260 SCRA 539)which was asked in the 1998 bar in remedial law. The SC here is not unanimous. Six (6) justices dissented fromthe majority. There are two sections compared here – Section 8 of Rule 124 and Section 10 of Rule 122.

PEOPLE

vs.

ESPARAS260 SCRA 539

[1996]

ISSUE

: Will the SC proceed to automatically review the death sentence of an accused who wastried in absentia and remained at large up to the present time? Or even if he appealed, and while theappeal is pending, he escaped?

HELD

: The majority said YES. You cannot apply Rule 124 because of the nature of the deathpenalty. There are 6 justices who disagreed.“Section 8 of Rule 124 of the Rules of Court which,

inter alia

, authorizes the dismissal of anappeal when the appellant jumps bail, has no application to cases where the death penalty has beenimposed. In death penalty cases, automatic review is mandatory. This is the text and tone of Section10, Rule 122, which is the more applicable rule.”Ayun! So there is an applicable rule and not the general rule in Rule 124. Let’s go to thephilosophy of the ruling:“There is more wisdom in our existing jurisprudence mandating our review of all death penaltycases, regardless of the wish of the convict and regardless of the will of the court. Nothing less thanlife is at stake and any court decision authorizing the State to take life must be as error-free aspossible. We must strive to realize this objective, however, elusive it may be, and our efforts must notdepend on whether appellant has withdrawn his appeal or has escaped. Nor should the Court beinfluenced by the seeming repudiation of its jurisdiction when a convict escapes. Ours is not only thepower but the duty to review all death penalty cases. No litigant can repudiate this power which isbestowed by the Constitution. The power is more of a sacred duty which we have to discharge toassure the People that the innocence of a citizen is our concern not only in crimes that slight but evenmore, in crimes that shock the conscience. This concern cannot be diluted.”(Of course, the SC anticipated criticisms – bakit ba masyado kayong (SC) protective of the rightsof the accused? That is the reason why criminality is rampant! But the SC answered that: )“The Court is not espousing a

“soft, bended, approach”

to heinous crimes for we have alwaysreviewed the imposition of the death penalty regardless of the will of the convict. Our unyieldingstance is dictated by the policy that the State should not be given the license to kill without the finaldetermination of this Highest Tribunal whose collective wisdom is the last; effective hedge against an

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